The Scholarly Kitchen Renovation and New Visual Identity Unveiled

January 18, 2017 – Wheat Ridge, CO – The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) unveiled the newly renovated website and visual identity for its popular blog, The Scholarly Kitchen (TSK), offering readers a fresh interface and exciting new functionality.

Since its launch in 2008, TSK quickly became a respected authority on scholarly publishing and communication. The highly-regarded and influential blog—read by thousands of publishers, editors, librarians, researchers, and publishing service providers in more than 200 countries each day—serves all segments involved in the scholarly publishing community. TSK has more than 8600 subscribers to daily content alerts and more than 14,000 followers on Twitter. Featuring an array of exclusive content from diverse and influential authors, also known as “chefs,” the voice of the blog represents the many areas of scholarly communications.

The new website features a vibrant, modern design with a number of enhanced features to improve the user experience. Because the site was designed to be responsive, adapting its display for optimal viewing on any size/resolution screen, it will maintain a useful, attractive look, regardless of how the reader chooses to view it. Readers will enjoy the enhanced social sharing functionally as well as the ability to conveniently view most recent, most commented and most viewed articles in addition to the TSK Twitter feed. New article collections will allow users to quickly locate content on a specific topic or theme alongside traditional search methods. Chefs’ bios now include links to their Twitter, LinkedIn and ORCID profiles so readers can easily follow or reach out to a favorite author.

“We’re really excited about the new site, which will bring TSK up to speed with the latest web developments. Improving our mobile experience is a big plus, as so many of our readers are on-the-go,” said David Crotty, Executive Editor of TSK. “The new design will help reflect the growth we’ve seen on the blog, as it has gone from an experiment in communication to an essential daily read for the scholarly communications community.”

Behind the scenes, enhanced analytics, SEO optimization, and a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate will contribute to improved overall performance and security of the website. The site, which was previously hosted on WordPress, is now hosted by a third-party hosting provider for increased performance, security and flexibility. The website and logo were developed by Windmill Design, a Minneapolis graphic and web design firm that also designed the SSP website.

“In addition to giving the website a fresh look, we also took this opportunity to update the TSK logo. Given the playful name of the blog, incorporating the whisk and the wine color allowed us to maintain the essence of the Kitchen’s brand—the best conversations always happen in the kitchen,” said Melanie Dolechek, Executive Director of SSP. “The TSK Renovation Task Force and the team at Windmill Design did an outstanding job of creating a new website that is both attractive and extremely functional. The project was managed very well and the final output truly captured the vision of the task force.”

“TSK has a tremendous following in the scholarly communication community. This new advertising channel represents a significant opportunity for organizations that want to gain visibility for their brand and reach key decision makers,” added Dolechek.

For a closer look at the updated website, visit https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org. The URL of the site is not changing and subscriptions for daily content notifications have been migrated to the new site.

About The Scholarly Kitchen – The Scholarly Kitchen (TSK) is a moderated and independent blog aimed to help fulfill SSP’s mission by bringing together differing opinions, commentary, and ideas, and presenting them openly. The blog is managed by Executive Editor David Crotty who is the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. TSK has, on average, 544,000 visits each year and 1.2 million page views. Visitors come to TSK to learn about new developments in publishing and read up on key research reports and projects. TSK is a highly visible and trusted publication, addressing novel, controversial and leading-edge topics.

About the Society for ScholarlyPublishing – The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), founded in 1978, is a nonprofit organization formed to promote and advance communication among all sectors of the scholarly publication community through networking, information dissemination, and facilitation of new developments in the field. SSP members represent all aspects of scholarly publishing — including publishers, printers, e-products developers, technical service providers, librarians, and editors. SSP members come from a wide range of large and small commercial and nonprofit organizations. They meet at SSP’s annual meetings, educational seminars, and Focus Groups to hear the latest trends from respected colleagues and to discuss common and mutual (and sometimes divergent) goals and viewpoints.

Learned Publishing Access

The October issue of Learned Publishing is packed with fascinating, must-read articles!

If you are interested in open access, this new issue is for you. Our authors this month address piracy and its impacts on the success of open access publishing, challenging both green and gold OA models. In the first of two installments, interviews with senior publishers and editors produces original insights into how and why publishers launch OA mega-journals. And, looking at the broader context of Korean scholarly communications, another article shares the OA models in play in Korea.

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